Bozon looking forward to Habs’ rookie camp after battling meningitis

Tim Bozon received an invitation this week to the Canadiens’ rookie camp next month and is confident he’ll be there after battling meningitis.

Bozon, who was selected by Montreal in the third round (64th overall) of the 2012 National Hockey League entry draft, was hospitalized in Saskatoon on March 1 after playing a game with the WHL’s Kootenay Ice against the Saskatoon Blades. He was diagnosed with meningitis and placed in a medically induced coma. Critically ill, he pulled through and was finally discharged from hospital four weeks later.

On July 31, with the green light from the Canadiens’ doctors, Bozon played for France’s national under-23 team at a tournament in the Czech Republic.

Bozon told The Gazette’s Brenda Branswell that the hardest part of his hockey rehab was that he had lost nearly 40 pounds.

“I worked hard for three, four summers to add muscle mass to get bigger,” he told Branswell. “And from one day to the next you look at yourself in the mirror and you’re not the same. And it’s hard to accept for a high-level athlete to see yourself weak, no more strength.”

Bozon now weighs 194 pounds, almost back to his listed weight last season of 199 pounds.

Bozon told Branswell there were moments when he wondered if he’d be able to return to hockey “but I try not to think about it.”

“For sure sometimes I said to myself, ‘Am I doing this for nothing?’ But that rarely happened to me. I knew it would end up by paying off. And for sure the reward will be to be at Montreal’s training camp and to see what I’m capable of doing.”

He said his goal is to play for the AHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs this coming season.

people will never be happy. I am not a fan of women being objectified but I really don’t see the big fuss on this. It is done very tongue in cheek and it is an instrumental.

I agree with the writer that a goal song about prostitutes is worse but they only play the beginning of the song before it gets to the lyrics about hookers. In saying that it isn’t played when a women is on the ice taking a shot.

If there’s one thing to take from this is that it’s not worth using a draft pick on players going the UCAA route. 4 years later, the player simply goes UFA, so there is no point to it. The big whoop is the compensatory draft pick. That means another 3 or 4 years waiting on another player to make it or not.

Why? Three or four guys go that route and it is suddenly not worth using a draft pick on players going the NCAA route?

Did you realize that players drafted out of the CHL are not required to sign contracts with their NHL clubs? So after two years, if you haven’t signed that player, they can go back into the draft. Many players have actually done this. Is the lesson also to not draft players out of the CHL?

There is no hard and fast rules here. There will always be rare occasions where young players aren’t simply ‘grateful’ for the opportunity of being drafted, but actually want some control over where they go. I say good for them. I’m all for abolishing the draft altogether, because it is an absolutely archaic system that has no place in the 21st century, and it is furthermore made redundant by the salary cap.

The argument was always that the top guys would go play for the top teams. Well here is a guy that is perceived as a pretty top player who is turning down the opportunity to play for a top team so that he can get ice time. The same thing happened with Justin Schultz in Anaheim.

You simply do not need an entry draft and restricted free agency when you have a salary cap. Eventually, the NHL will lose a labour challenge on free agency, just as happened in Europe with the Bosman Ruling.

After waiting 4 years on a drafted player only to have him back out legally is a waste of time and effort spent on that prospect. The same goes with the marginally talented CHL players that go back in the draft only to be not picked again. (I’ve seen that scenario play out a number of times now.)

Get rid of the draft and you shrink the league. How many players would choose Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto and even Montreal?
If I had the choice of being gainfully employed in warmer climes where snow is just a thought and not a reality, I’d be there. Carolina, Florida, Tampa, Dallas, Arizona and all 3 California teams would be the choice of most. You can play hockey and live anonymously.
The draft won’t change anytime soon, but it’s better than being signed to a contract at 12 like Orr, right?

I like Pateryn and was surprised he didn’t get a call up last season as he looked much better in the games I watched in Hamilton than both Beaulieu and Tinordi.

I do also agree with the EOTP assessment that he is a jack of all trades and doesn’t really excel at a particular aspect of the game. He has decent decision making skills in the AHL and also makes a good first pass out of the zone. It will be interesting to see if he gets called up this year. I don’t see him beating out Beaulieu out of training camp. Nathan has great offensive upside and is a great skater. His play away from the puck does need work though

Andre Markov should be the captain. He’s respected by everyone, and he’s put his time in. Captain’s should not be cheerleaders, they should be leading by example. The “rah rah” stuff will fall on deaf ears, these are professional athletes, they respect actions not words.

In the rare case words need to be spoken Markov’s words would carry a lot of weight.

I had always thought this to be true, but Markov has stated that he was never actually offered the captaincy in the past. He also said that he would accept it were it offered to him before Gionta was named captain.

We should refrain from thinking of the captaincy of the team as an honorific title to be bestowed on a player, but rather consider it a job function that needs to be fulfilled. Not an award or recognition, like the Nobel Peace Prize, but rather a duty to act as a peacemaker and statesman, a delegate.

We all have seen coworkers who have great promise, and lots of skills and aptitude, some of which included precociousness and the natural ability to lead and serve in a supervisory capacity, and others who were great at their job too, but were more great colleagues who made the workplace better and who were awesome to have a beer with, but who weren’t necessarily staff members we’d want as foremen or supervisors at that point in career.

That Sidney Crosby and Jonathan Toews were more than ready at an early point in their career to assume the captaincy of their team doesn’t mean that P.K. or Max or anybody else ‘should’ be ready by now too. These young captains are the exception rather than the rule, usually a veteran who’s been through the wars is preferable.

———————————————————————–It’s somewhere between a toothless attack and a vicious homage.–Paul Rudd

I’m sorry to be the contrarian here. By your definition, I don’t think Crosby is a good captain. Toews might be, but the emphasis is on the word “might.”

I will admit that I don’t see many Penguins’ or Hawks’ games, so my sample size is small. It’s mostly post-season games, when one would think a captain gets to show his mettle more than he would during the regular season.

What I have seen of Crosby isn’t captaincy material. I have seen an undeniably talented player demonstrate appallingly undisciplined play. Last year with the Bruins, this year with the Rangers, and almost every year with the Flyers, Crosby has been thrown off his game, taken too many penalties and behaved irresponsibly, like when he cheap-shotted Rask. He hasn’t really put up the points, either.

I don’t disagree at all that Crosby, like Toews, is targeted. Yet, as captain, he ought to be able to get beyond that.

Toews also was undisciplined this past post-season (not as much as Crosby) but did put up more points.

To me, a good captain would have rebuked whoever said “wakey-wakey” to an obviously concussed David Backes. He also would have told Milan Lucic to get his behind to the Canadiens’ dressing room to apologize to Dale Weise and Alexei Emelin. A good captain would also be a leader on the ice and not encourage his team-mates to lose their heads by losing his own. He would realize that the post-season is different and that it makes no sense to feel victimized as much as Crosby seems to do.

I think Gionta was a better captain than Crosby is now. There’s no-one around with the stature of Jean Beliveau or Henri Richard or Serge Savard. Kirk Muller was a good captain. Crosby and Toews don’t come close.

My point? PK is more than ready. He was a hot-head last year against Ottawa and learned from that. He was masterful against the Bruins this past season.